Purchase
A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music
Putnam
April 2008
On Sale: April 17, 2008
Featuring: Nathaniel Ayers
288 pages
ISBN: 0399155066
EAN: 9780399155062
Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction Biography
A moving story of the remarkable bond between a journalist
in search of a story and a homeless, classically trained
musician—destined to be a major motion picture from
DreamWorks, starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. When Steve Lopez saw Nathaniel Ayers playing his heart out
on a two-string violin on Los Angeles’ skid row, he found it
impossible to walk away. More than thirty years earlier,
Ayers had been a promising classical bass student at
Juilliard—ambitious, charming, and also one of the few
African-Americans—until he gradually lost his ability to
function, overcome by schizophrenia. When Lopez finds him,
Ayers is homeless, paranoid, and deeply troubled, but
glimmers of that brilliance are still there. Over time, Steve Lopez and Nathaniel Ayers form a bond, and
Lopez imagines that he might be able to change Ayers’s life.
Lopez collects donated violins, a cello, even a stand-up
bass and a piano; he takes Ayers to Walt Disney Concert Hall
and helps him move indoors. For each triumph, there is a
crashing disappointment, yet neither man gives up. In the
process of trying to save Ayers, Lopez finds that his own
life is changing, and his sense of what one man can
accomplish in the lives of others begins to expand in new ways. Poignant and ultimately hopeful, The Soloist is a
beautifully told story of friendship and the redeeming power
of music.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy